This is Dudley's first uniform.
Dudley was very good at reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Normally he rebelled against
imposed, repetitious ritual intended to indoctrinate his vulnerable mind, but he liked getting the pronounciation correct and pausing only where there was a coma; standing tall
and
straight; and pledging his heart and life to the meanings of the pledge, because maybe doing this might
make him someday into a man Davy Crocket, or his own Father would respect.
Dudley's Father was the most honest and righteous man Dudley knew and though he let Dudley's Mom
walk all over him, Dudley knew no one else could. Later, Dudley would also take
remembering his Catechism seriously. "What is the chief end of Man?" was the question, and he
knew
the answer was, "To obey God, and to love 'Him' forever." So the Boy Scout Oath, "On my honor, I
will do
my
best, to do my duty to God and my Country...," had also been an effective ritual in Dudley's programing. Dudley's head was filled with self-righteous World War II movies; the glories of
rocket sledding and flying X-planes; mad and not so mad Scientists in hidden labs, giant animals and giant insects or giant humans, mutated
into frightening monstrous threats to the planet by fall out from The Bomb or Science somehow otherwise gone
wild where it tread in God's Domain without "His" permission; the possibilities of travel to other planets,
or the exploration of remote jungles, and the relentless presence of nightly westerns in the form of
morality plays on
TV. Dudley was devastated when Buddy Holly's plane crashed only fifty miles from his home following his final appearance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. This was the first time death had serious impact for him. He saw through the Dobie Gillis character for the fool and phony he was and preferred to be like Maynard, who didn't bother worrying about
how to get money out of the pocket of a father figure, in order to capture the affections of the most beautiful girl in school, because Maynard seemed to see that she was too shallow to bother with, while true love was ever faithful to Dobie as Zelda proved week after week, regardless of whether Dobie deserved her or not. But alas, Dobie himself was too shallow to see or value what true love was, or value himself very highly without the artificial supports a shiny, powerful car, or lots of money, or positions of power he seemed to feel might magically make up for whatever he imagined his short comings to be. the most beautiful girl in school was his ultimate trophy, if he could win her. (Did Darwin really see these dynamics in one hundred year old tortoises?) And little did Dudley exspect how many Dobie Gillis's he would meet who had signed up to become officers in the US Army, who would put themselves first above their men and above simple moral refinements that safe guard others from our own selfishness and falability, but he tried to do what Maynard would do. He stayed out of their way, tolerated them and otherwise ignored them, but finding himself in a subordinate role that placed him in a special position in relationship to several, he tried to do all that Spock would have done for Kirk, or Maynard for Dobie, and when he was pleasantly surprised to find himself working with one who was more interested in placing himself among the humble in his self image, he worked no harder to preserve that man's life, though he felt it more when they were hurt or grieved. And oh yes, Dudley had a huge crush on Annette as a boy watching dailey episodes of The Mickey Mouse Club. Decades later, he cried when he learned she had become afflicted with MS. Something so awful should never have happened to sweet Annette! (He thought Darlene was pretty hot, too. And that she actually had the better singing voice.)
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WASPs were encouraged to date only WASPs. It was imperative to
keep to "one's own kind", because other "kinds" weren't good enough. Most of the adults in Dudley's World would have looked down on Annette, for example, because she was Roman Catholic, and when JFK came along and
took his hat off for the cameras, these adults remained staunchly pro-Nixon, even though the former Vice President made their skin crawl, but this was okay, since JFK was really just another Dobie Gillis, as are most Presidents, with the exception of Nixon, oddly enough. Dudley discovered most people seem to like to be fooled, or to be fools, so long as they do not have to be confronted with the fact, so no one knows much about the Truth it turns out, but they think they know what it is when they hear it and all our lives hang in the balance. An artificial star promoted by deft means of advertising tools, like Sinatra or Elvis, can become more than the sum total of their talents ever would have made them and the people love it and love them. Conversely, men and women of great ability can be totally demolished by the same means by those jealous of their ability or power and the people see it all happen right before their eyes and believe what they want to believe, and the lies and the truth become one, and no one tries to straighten it all out after a while.
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